Innovation or Implementation?

I found it interesting to read this report which says that Microsoft, often thought of as a hotbed of innovation, doesn't invent much of the technology which it deploys, but rather purchases much of it from other companies (or purchases the entire company).

It brings to mind a speech I recently heard at the 4th India Innovation Forum where Madhabi Puri-Buch, an executive from ICICI Bank, said that part of their strategy at the bank to reward innovation is to recognize those individuals (or groups) who have most effectively deployed innovations developed elsewhere (they call it the 'Copycat Award'). Her point was that innovation consists of ideation + the ability to scale and execute and so those people who put into practice what others have developed are equally responsible for delivering the benefit of innovation to the bank as are those who developed the idea in the first place.

It seems that Microsoft is a clear case study in the truth of her statement, taking ideas from others and building them into their product/service offering has helped them reap enormous rewards and place them in the top-tier of global software firms.

At L-RAMP, we see the same lessons in our work - many have great ideas, we exist to take those great ideas into enterprises which deliver the benefit of those great ideas to the people who need them because ideas, on their own, deliver little benefit to anybody.